Rio Tinto, the UK-listed mining group, said it was planning to make billions of dollars worth of disposals to help pay for Alcan, the Canadian aluminium group, which it agreed to buy in a friendly $44bn (€31.6bn) deal.

France turns up the pressure on EADS

France on Thursday increased the tension in negotiations over the management restructuring at EADS by reviving calls to review the shareholder pact that limits government influence in the Franco-German aerospace group.

Companies and markets

TPG asked back for Alitalia bid

The Italian government has re-opened contacts with TPG, the US private equity group, to establish on what basis it might be willing to re-enter the bidding for Alitalia, the state-controlled airline.

Cherney appeals in Rusal case

Mikhail Cherney, a controversial founding father of the post-Soviet aluminium industry, is making an appeal in the London High Court claiming a 20% stake in Rusal, part of the Russian aluminium group United Company Rusal now gearing up for a full listing on the London Stock Exchange.

President George W Bush struck an aggressive new tone on Thursday in his clash with Congress over Iraq, telling lawmakers they had no business trying to manage the war, portraying the conflict as a showdown with Al Qaeda and warning that moving toward withdrawal now would risk "mass killings on a horrific scale."

A Chinese reformer betrays his cause, and pays

Zheng Xiaoyu was once ranked as one of the most powerful regulators in China. He rose from modest beginnings to help create and lead Beijing's version of the Food and Drug Administration in the US.

Marketplace

Ventana spurns $3bn offer from Roche

Ventana Medical Systems, the US maker of a new test for breast cancer, on Wednesday rejected the hostile $3bn (€2.1) takeover offer by Roche Holding.

Mergers and buyouts curb Indian air fare war

Mergers and buyouts are ending the cut-throat airline competition in India and with it the 2-cent ticket wars that lost the industry $500m (€260m).

Gazprom on Thursday invited French energy major Total to help develop the Shtokman project, ending years of wrangling over whether foreign companies would take part in developing one of the world's largest and most difficult gas fields.

Furry thespians in danger of loosing stage

Yury Kuklachyov and his cats have played New York and Paris, but they soon might find themselves without a home of their own.

Business

Lawysayd he will defend Berezovsky

A Moscow court on Thursday adjourned a trial in absentia of exiled billionaire Boris Berezovsky on fraud charges, as the court-appointed defense lawyer said he would defend him "professionally."

Rosneft will seek to fill pipe toAsia

Rosneft will almost completely fill Russia's first oil pipeline to Asia, leaving little space for private firms when the route opens later this decade, Semyon Vainshtok, head of pipeline monopoly Transneft, said Thursday.

Thirty-six years after it was founded, the "Free State of Christiania" is now being forced to comply with Copenhagen's local ordinances. Those who wish to remain are being asked to buy their homes -- at prices close to the market value.

Following the tour de France in the shadow of doping

The Tour de France has begun, but does anybody really care? Cycling is suffering as fans and sponsors turn away in droves, disgusted by the sport's inability to solve its persistent doping problem.

Chinese are getting results on their ‘grand tobacco scheme’, which involves producing tobacco in Uzbekistan and Kyrgystan using seeds smuggled out of Turkey. They are expected to sell Oriental tobacco to international companies for $1 (€0.73)per kilo – a fraction of the price commanded by the true Turkish commodity

Kurdish leader pledges common sense over emotions

Pro-Kurdish groups wanted to attend the funerals of soldiers killed in the fight against the outlawed Kurdistan Workers' Party (PKK) but had not done so out of fear of anger and prejudices directed at them, said Aysel Tuğluk, former deputy leader of the pro-Kurdish Democratic Society Party (DTP).

Business and finance

Prices jump 15% in Russian Olympic host city

Real estate prices in Sochi jumped 15% after the southern Russian city was selected to host the 2014 Winter Olympics, property market analysts said on Tuesday.

China's English-language magazines in Turkey

Yay-Sat media distribution started selling the English-language versions of Beijing Review, China Today and China Pictorial in Turkey at the beginning of July.

Poles rank fourth in the world in terms of satisfaction with their sex lives, according to the latest Durex's Sexual Wellbeing Survey, which interviewed 26,000 respondents from 26 countries.

"CBA provocation" backfires against the PM

After it was revealed by the media that the corruption affair which led to the dismissal of Agriculture Minister Andrzej Lepper was from start to finish run by the officers of the Central Anti Corruption Bureau (CBA), opposition parties have demanded the resignation of Prime Minister Jarosław Kaczyński and the head of the CBA Mariusz Kamiński.

Business

Business groups back SLD proposal to cut VAT

The Democratic Left Alliance (SLD) yesterday submitted a bill to reduce the basic VAT rate from 22% to 19%, drawing a favorable response from business circles.

FSO breaks into profit thanks to soaring sales

FSO turned a profit for the first time in six years in the 2006 fiscal year amid surging output and booming export sales, the company said.